Oh No! Poor Snow!

Don't hate me! Maybe it is because we don't celebrate Thanksgiving down here, or the start of the red cups at Starbucks, but I am in the winter spirit! As an early gift to everyone here's a PowerPoint of a winter adaptation of one of my favorite activities for little ones!
The activity is usually called, "Poor Joe" but in this case I changed it to "Poor Snow!" we use the exact same chant except we practice on a snowman.

I encourage you to make your own snowman using body parts and clothing you want to review with your students, but this gives you an idea.

If you are planning on practicing winter clothing here's another activity you may like to try.
Happy Holidays!

FLY SWATTER

Flyswatter is an easy no prep game best used to review vocabulary and popular with all levels of EFL students (though it is great for non-EFL too).

BASIC STEPS:

1. Write all the vocabulary on the board (if you have a smart board you can put it up that way).
2. The class is divided into two-four groups.
3. Each group sends one student to the front of the class.
4. They stand a meter and a half away from the board facing the class (their backs to the board).
5. The teacher calls out a clue this can be the word's definition, antonym, a visual clue (gesture/picture).
6. The students can turn around AFTER the teacher gives the clue.
7. They try to find the word on the board.
8. The first student to hit* the word gets the point for their team. *Traditionally this game is played with each student having a fly swatter, but I have also had students just slap with their hands or use a rolled up newspaper.
9. If none of the students hit the word, their group can help them by calling out hints; however, they can ONLY call out direction words in English (higher, lower, right, up, down, etc.)
10. Once the points have been given the students go back to their group and new students come up.
11. The game is played until everyone has a chance to play, or all the words have been used.

LOW LEVEL:

1. Instead of writing the word you can play this game with preschool students by drawing or posting up pictures (or just the colors).
2. Rather than giving clues the teacher will actually say the vocabulary word (or maybe something that is the color of the word).

SAME-SAME but different

1. Write the antonyms on the board and give students the vocabulary word instead of a clue.
2. On the same lines write synonyms on the board and use the vocabulary words as clues.
3. To make it more complicated you can use a mix of antonyms, synonyms and vocabulary words on the board.

DIRECTIONS

1. Use it JUST to review directions and not vocabulary words.
2. Pass out a list of words paired with random words, colors matched with numbers, very advanced words with their definition, etc.
3. Since the students won't have the list memorized they will need to be guided (up, down, left, right) by their group who has the answers.

This is a great game when you have some extra time in class, or if you teach somewhere that doesn't give you a lot of materials when you teach.

You'll learn the best ways to adapt it for your class. With some classes you have to make it so they can only hit one word and then the other teams get a guess before they can hit again (otherwise they'll just hit all the words randomly). Have you used the game? How would you adapt it?

No prep game to practice Numbers and... Clothing, Body Parts, School Supplies, etc.

Today is a quickie as I sit here grading essays remembering, "the good 'ol days" of playing games with kiddies.

I have no idea what this game is called; I think I picked it up from a friend when I taught in South Korea. I do know that it is fantastic as it requires absolutely NO preparation and my primary students always loved it. This is an easy no prep game that's ideal for practicing numbers and anything else students may have on them (School Supplies, Body Parts, Clothing, etc.)

The basic concept of the game is that students need to form groups according to what you say.

First everyone stands up and spreads out.
Then the teacher will say a number and a noun, something like, "10 shoes."
To make a group of 10 shoes you would need 5 people, so the students need to hurry to make a group of 5 people.
Whoever doesn't get in a group has to sit down. The teacher repeats with another phrase, "3 noses" now they have to break up their group of 5 people and make groups of 3 people (to make 3 noses).
To make it a bit more complicated we can use school supplies. Since the number of pencils will vary from person to person saying something like, "23 pencils" could mean anything from a group of 3 people to a group of 7 people.



Students like it as they are up and moving around and it makes them actively practice their numbers plus whatever you choose for the target language to be.


If you are looking for other ways to help reinforce vocabulary check out this post with tons of ideas! 
 
Please let me know if you use it and how it goes or if you have found a way to tweak it to work better for your class. You can do this in the comments, the Melting Activities facebook page or follow me on twitter.

Oh no! Poor Joe... body parts game

I just got an e-mail from a friend the other day that she was using a body part game I introduced to her which the kids ALWAYS love, so I figured I'd share it.

It's one of those great games that doesn't actually require much set up. I have used it with older students, but I'll walk through the little kiddie one and you can change it as you wish.

In all fairness I snagged the concept from a scene in the movie Dave

The students at this point have normally learned, "Hello," "My name is" "What's your name" and "How are you today" along with some emotions. The next unit is normally body parts soo...here we are.

First, I tell them I want them to meet a friend of mine. What do we do when we meet a friend?  Eventually some student says, "Say Hello" or "What's your name." As they are guessing, I draw my friend on the board (you can draw a whole body for other body parts, but my paint skills are lacking so I just did the face here):

My friend Joe

Teacher: "Do we know his name?"
Students: "Nooo"

Teacher: "How do we ask?"
Students"Hi, What's your name"

Teacher, "My name's Joe"
Students, "How are you today?"
Teacher. "I am not feeling well"


Teacher "Repeat after me: Oh No!"
Students "Oh No"

Teacher "Poor Joe"
Students "Poor Joe"

Teacher "He has no"
Students "He has no"

My friend missing something

***erase a  body part****
 
Teacher: "What is Joe missing?"
Students: "Ears!"
Teacher: "Great, so all together:

Students and Teacher: "Oh no, poor Joe he has no ears!"

***Draw the ears back on and repeat erasing a different body part***

When your students get the hang of the chant (which they LOVE) see if you can get them involved!

Have them come up in from of the class and "become" Joe. They will practice introductions again, (Hi, what's your name? My name is Joe. How are you? etc.) Then the student should turn AWAY from the rest of the class. The class starts, "Oh no! Poor Joe, he has no..." and then the student turns around, only this time the student is covering something (eyes, ears, mouth, elbows...I've had students tuck their hands into jackets or arms into shirts) the students quickly pick out what is missing and finish the chant.

This is a quickly made example of the beat with the words. Students really don't care how well drawn Joe is!

This game can be altered to use powerpoint, prezi, posterboards, hand made cards, etc. I've seen it done very nicely with large cards here. It can be used with clothes (Oh no poor Joe, he has no scarf!). Though if you use clothes, be sure to bring in extras so you don't have students taking off their pants in class. You can make handouts with the pre-written chant, "Oh no! Poor Joe, he has no _______" and have students fill in the blanks and draw a picture. Really it is just a great springboard or wrap-up.

You can download the directions for class and a quick worksheet for your students for $1 just check my store on TPT if you aren't already signed up you can do that here)

Anyways, this game has helped me with lots of classes (and relentless random children at banks) so hopefully someone else can use it too.

Do you have a go-to game that is little to no prep for if you get called in to sub a class? Or you need to fill up an extra ten minutes at the end? The other one I love is flyswatter, but I think most teachers use that.

BONUS: I just made a new version for Winter. check out, "Oh No, Poor Snow"

Head, Shoulders Knees and Toes...with Clothes!

My students always LOVED head, shoulders, knees and toes, and I always loved it since it was really heavy in the TPR area. Sadly, there are only so many times a student can learn the parts of the body. So, I changed the song a little for studying clothes. They still got a kick out of it and it is a great wintery activity (that doesn't touch on the religous aspects of winter) that keeps them moving (and is still a great Total Physcial Response. song)



I prefer teaching trousers since pants has a different meaning in England, but to each their own. Feel free to teach pants, jeans, or whatever else. If you choose a one syllable word I reccommend adding an "and" to keep the beat.

This could also be adapting to Summer (Cap, sunscreen, shorts, sandals... glasses, hair tie, chapstick, ... ideas for nose?)

Happy Holidays! You can download the directions for class and a quick worksheet for your students for free just check my store on

Occupations

Before the lesson I printed out the bunny outlines: http://www.makingfriends.com/friends/f_bunny.htm and dressed the bunnies in different occupations this worked well.

The Doctor outfit from makingfriends.com

To start the lesson We started with the normal hello song and reviewed the emotions, days etc. Then I showed them a picture of my friend Larry who is a leprechaun. We describe Larry and guess his favorite color and job (many students guessed things like miner or show maker). I explain Larry´s job is to protect the gold, so if you find it he will give you a wish to get it back. Then I show a picture of a rabbit who found the gold.  

The story Once a rabbit found the Leprechauns gold. The leprechaun offered him anything he wanted. The rabbit said "I want a job" The Leprechaun said "1. 2 3 abracadabra and the rabbit turned into a _________" (the students guess the occupation based on the clothing, we then review the clothing). But the rabbit didn't´t want to be a _____, so the Leprechaun said "1, 2, 3 abracadabra" (repeat until all occupations are covered) Activity When the students are seated we look at the clothes for different occupations. Then we practice saying "I want to be a ______" and "I don´t want to be a _______" After the students, who were well behaved, can pick which coloring doll they want (but they have to ask in English). They ask lots of questions about which shorts to color etc so they also practice vocabulary. Not very complex, but good fun! For fast finishers they had to also color a leprechaun and paste the rabbit on the leprechaun page (make sure they draw a rainbow!) Clearly I meshed this with St. Patricks day but you could easily mesh it with an easter bunny who wants a new job or Cupid who lost his bow etc.